Wednesday, 4 July 2012

There was panic recently in Fethiye when rumours of a tsunami caused
locals to rush for higher ground – but history shows you’re more likely to be
killed by a rogue wave in the United Kingdom than on the Mediterranean region.

After days of seismic activity and a magnitude 6.0 earthquake on June
10, worried Fethiye residents took to their cars and hit the motorways after
news spread via mobile phones and social networks that a huge wave was imminent.
Houses were abandoned and roads clogged with cars as people fled the coast.

However, authorities denied the rumours, telling locals there was no
reason at all to panic. History tells us that Turkey has had just one tsunami, a
two-metre wave that hit the shores of the Sea of Marmara in 1999, killing 10
people in the aftermath of the Izmit earthquake.

In fact, if you look back at
history, you’ll see that the UK has suffered more tsunami damage than Turkey.

In 1607 an earthquake off the coast of Southern Ireland caused a tsunami
which killed around 2000 people from Somerset to Cardiff. This natural disaster
is the deadliest on record.

Other deadly European tsunamis in the last few hundred years include the
one that hit Lisbon in after
an earthquake in 1755, killing 60,000 and a 1908 wave in Messina, Italy, which
killed more than 70,000.